I'm telling you, it's a beautiful view

my to-do list from last summer:

• eat at the top of the Hotel Washington at sunset
• visit the Botanical Gardens
• go to the next local Postsecret exhibit...when/wherever it is
• make my New Orleans album
• make jambalaya and beignets and have a little open apartment/reunion type thing
• go back to New Orleans

Hmm....so, I did one of those things. Here is the list for 007:

• eat at the top of the Hotel Washington at sunset
• go to a baseball game
• make an album for Kirsten's wedding
• get a job, and prepare cool stuff for my classroom
• go to an outdoor concert
• go to a drive-in movie...in Pennsylvania if I must
  

That's pretty much it. Especially that top one.

(about) a week in the life

Give a final group presentation and 'graduate' from the program.


Hop (3) plane(s) the next morning to my sister's wedding in Santa Cruz.


Hop 3 more planes (one of which never left the ground) to get back to College Park for a job interview and graduation.


Drive up to New York for my 7th and final stay at Lake Champion.


Drive back, and take Esther to her first snowball stand ever.



In conclusion, I like my brother-in-law a lot, but eating babies' heads is a huge red flag. None of us were aware of this before the reception, and by that point it was too late.

Mwahahaha.

okay, so I was walking half the time

The other day I went for a run. I am ridiculously out of shape, but every so often I get the urge to go running. Usually, this is at 11:00 at night or something, and no one wants to go with me, so I end up not going.

However, the other day I felt like running. It was early evening, when the summer sun is just starting to go down, so everything was falling perfectly into place. I've never actually run to Artemesia from my house, so I just assumed which way I should go, and my 8th sense took over, dropping me off right in front of the lake. Now Artemesia is no Stiles, Champion, Centennial, Elkhorn, or Kittamaqundi, but when you've been trapped inside a basement all year long, even a College Park lake can become a beautiful place.

I rarely choose to be alone, but when I'm out in nature, I actually enjoy it. As I walked past a little birdhouse by the path around the lake, I saw a royal blue bird sitting on top of the house. I thought it was strange that it didn't move, since I was pretty close, so I just stood there to watch it. After a little while, it chirped, then got up and started to fly away. I watched it as it circled in the air, then realized it was coming right back. I thought that was pretty weird, so I kept watching it. Then it started flipping out and making this loud call. Soon, another bird joined it, and I figured there were babies in the house, and the birds were trying to scare me away. I just stood there, and the birds kept going nuts until they started swooping at my head! They got closer and closer until they were diving at me within a few inches of my head. I just started laughing, and wondering if they would actually dare to touch me. They didn't.

So there I was, standing by a lake all alone, cracking up as two blue birds repeatedly dove at my face. Nature is amusing. I miss it.

a tribute

This is not the greatest hits. This is just a snapshot.

gotta go shower

That was among the most disgusting experiences of my life.

I was just sitting on my floor, doing some work, when I smelled a nasty stank. I thought it might be a stink bug, because last week I found a stink bug in my room. I saw a little black beetle thing darting across my floor, and I went to catch it. It got scared and as I chased it among the mess of papers on my floor, it let off some type of spray I guess. Bleeccch blecch. I've called things stink bugs before, but I think I found the true owner of the name, cause this thing reeked of poop.

But I digress. I was talking about stinky room incident number two. Wow, that makes me feel unclean.

Anyway, I started sniffing around to see what it was, but it didn't seem to be in my room. I walked out into the hall, and there it was. A moldy, juicy, caved-in pumpkin. This pumpkin had been sitting there since Halloween. That would be in 2006 and a good 6 months ago. That is half a year in case you need help with the math.

We all knew this pumpkin was there. I would pass by it every so often, give it a tap on the side, and marvel at the fact that the pumpkin was still good and not at all moldy (or so it appeared from the outside). This begs the question: What was I waiting for? Was I planning on letting it rot in my house, right next to my bedroom?

But that's not all! The other day, someone was over and pointed out the fact that the pumpkin had finally become moldy. I saw the mold and told a roommate. I figured I would let the owner of the pumpkin handle the situation. Clearly I did not understand the gravity of the situation.

I can't believe I let it come to this. I had to pick up and throw away the squishy, oozing, slimeball of a pumpkin and bleach the tainted floor beneath it. Even bleach did not serve to stop the repulsive odor that is now wafting around the basement. Now I can't shake the creepy feeling on my skin. I am disgusting.